With "zero-hour" only hours away, and with the the possibility of a last minute aversion of the strike quickly dimming, one can only wonder how the LIRR will come about operations leading up, and during the strike.
When the clock strikes 12:01am tomorrow morning, if the strike hasn't otherwise been called off, crews will not immediately "walk off the job" but, would rather continue their finish their current run and upon finishing their shift, they would leave the property and not return. Therefore, the LIRR has published a list of final trains to run on each of it's branches:
Babylon Branch- 11:45 pm from Babylon to Penn Station
- 11:51 pm from Penn Station to Babylon
- 11:31 pm from Atlantic Terminal to Jamaica
- 11:39 pm from Jamaica to Atlantic Terminal
- 11:30 pm from Grand Central to Far Rockaway
- 11:14 pm from Far Rockaway to Grand Central
- 10:55 pm westbound from Hempstead to Grand Central
- 11:54 pm eastbound from Grand Central to Hempstead
- 10:53 pm from Long Beach to Penn Station
- 11:57 pm from Penn Station to Long Beach
- 8:50 pm from Jamaica to Montauk
- 10:53 pm from Jamaica to Speonk
- 10:03 pm from Montauk to Jamaica
- 11:30 pm from Patchogue to Jamaica
Oyster Bay Branch
- 11:30 pm from Oyster Bay to Jamaica
- 11:43 pm from Jamaica to Oyster Bay
- 10:20 pm from Penn Station to Huntington with a connection to Port Jefferson
- 11:48 pm from Penn Station to Huntington with no connection to Port Jefferson
- 11:52 pm from Huntington to Penn Station
- 9:26 pm from Port Jefferson to Huntington with a connection to Penn Station
- 11:28 pm from Port Jefferson to Huntington with no connection at Huntington
- 11:36 pm from Port Washington to Penn Station
- 11:45 pm from Penn Station to Port Washington
- 11:37 pm from Penn Station to Ronkonkoma
- 11:54 pm from Ronkonkoma to Penn Station
- 11:18 pm from Jamaica to West Hempstead
- 11:58 pm from West Hempstead to Jamaica
So as you can see, the LIRR is seemingly chosen to run service at full scale leading up to the strike. In my opinion they would have been far better off dialing service down in advance of the strike in order to more easily place equipment in strategic locations, to make it easier to retrieve it once service is restored. However, I can understand the headache this would cause should the strike be averted last minute.
- Bay Shore LIRR to Howard Beach-JFK Airport (A train)
- Huntington LIRR to Jamaica-179 St (F train)
- Ronkonkoma LIRR to Jamaica-179 St (F train)
Additionally, they will also run a couple of busses in the peak direction only:
- Hempstead Lake State Park (near Lakeview LIRR) to Howard Beach JFK Airport (A train)
- Hicksville LIRR to Howard Beach JFK Airport (A train)
- Mineola LIRR to Howard Beach JFK Airport (A train)
These shuttle busses likely won't help that much. While they will likely help alleviate some of the worst of the peak loads coming from Long Island, they won't be of any help outside the peak periods (4:30am to 9am heading westbound and 3pm to 7pm heading eastbound). Additionally,
If the strike ends up happening and isn't resolved by Monday it will be detrimental to New York's economy. Hundreds of thousands rely on the LIRR every day to get to work and a couple of lazily put together contingency plans is not going to substitute for it. While the hope is that the LIRR will come to a deal, if this is not the case, the best the LIRR can and has really done is strongly encourage people to either work from home or allow extra travel time and brace for some of the worst traffic the island has ever dealt with. Given that traffic on Long Island (which has already been strained enough with the recent pot-hole incident on the LIE) will be pure and absolute chaos. Literally all of the island's other alternative transportation options (which are limited) will likely be at full capacity.
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